


Altea! Is Your Band Ready?

by muzicwolf



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allura plays Flute, Assistant Drum Major! Shiro, Band Director! Coran, Drum Major! Allura, Everyone knows she's gonna be the drum major when Allura and Shiro leave, Hunk plays Quad, I really have no idea where I want to put Nyma or Rolo yet, Keith plays Trumpet, Lance plays Trumpet, M/M, Marching Band AU, Matt plays Euphonium, Pidge is basically drum major in training, Pidge plays Mellophone, Shay is on colorguard, Shiro plays Saxaphone, Spanish speaking Lance, Trumpet Rivals, established Hunk/Shay, eventual shallura, i promise matt will show up later, just haven't had a chance to write in a majority of the characters yet, klance, more tags to be added later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2017-03-21
Packaged: 2018-09-01 01:52:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8602543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muzicwolf/pseuds/muzicwolf
Summary: Galra Academy is the most elite high school in every sense of the word. But what really pulled Keith in was the award-winning music program and marching band. He never thought he'd be forced to leave and go to one Altea High School. The food is bad, everyone goofs off too much at practice, the music program is under-funded, and a certain trumpet player will not stop getting under his skin.But Altea is the school that produced the field show that made Keith fall in love with musical performance in the first place. So who knows, maybe it won't be so bad.





	1. Welcome to Altea HS

**Author's Note:**

> Hello friends and welcome to my Voltron marching band au. Also known as my second Voltron fic. I actually had this idea first, but my Uni au was easier to write the first chapter for, even though this first chapter ended up being longer than the first chapter for my other fic.  
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading this as much as enjoyed writing it. As a former band nerd, I strive to make this as accurate as possible, but please feel free to let me know if I miss something up.  
> Let me know what you think!

 It was perfect. 

Keith had watched that video more times than he could count, but he could never ever find any flaws. Maybe he thought if he watched the tape long enough, someone would finally step off beat, purely under the under the intensity of his stare, but it never happened. It was mesmerizing to watch. The way all the flags were perfectly in sync. The choreography of the color guard was perfect and if he closed his eyes, he could almost see the days upon days of practice and frustration that went into it. Anyone watching this video for the first time would scoff at the idea that this was merely a high school band.

However, there was something more. It wasn’t just perfect practice that made the performance so captivating. But for the life of him, Keith could never figure out what it was.

A lot of people regarded this absolute perfection of the show as a memory. Something to think of fondly and then move on.

But not Keith. This field show was his inspiration. He lived and breathed every second of this performance. And more than a memory, it was his life. It was the reason he decided to sacrifice a social life and friends to go to Galra Academy. It was the reason that Keith decided he wanted to be perfect. _Needed_ to be perfect. So that someday, just maybe, he’d be able to find out what made Altea’s field show the perfection that it was. 

~~~

“Lance, Allura is going to behead us if we are late to practice.” 

Hunk was only _half_ joking. Maybe she wouldn’t behead them but it was likely that they would never ever see the light of day again if they were late.

“It’s the last day of band camp Hunk. What could we possibly be doing?”

Lance’s voice carried down the hall from the bathroom where he was massaging facial scrub into his skin.

“It’s because it’s the last day that we _can’t_ be late Lance. Please, just rinse your face off so we can go. You don’t have to go through this entire process _every_ morning, do you? You wash and moisturize your face every morning and night. I think you’ll be fine this one time.”

Lance stopped what he was doing and leaned backwards out of the doorframe to give Hunk a look at was a cross between disgusted and shocked.

“ _Hunk,_ this is a very essential 3 step process. Wash, exfoliate, and moisturize. How many times have I explained this to you? Do you think my skin is just naturally this beautiful? It takes time and _dedication_. Say I skip today and everything is fine. Then I’ll start to slack off. I won’t wash my face as often. Then my skin will start to break out. _Do you remember middle school Hunk?_ Because I do. And it’s not something that I’m eager to repeat. I-”

“ _Aye pendejo, cállate! Estas hablando de nada.”_

Lance turned away from Hunk to glare down the hallway. 

_“Es Sábado, pero eso no significa que tienes que dormir hasta el mediodía!”_

Hunk recognized the response as something that sounded a lot like _F off,_ but with something else thrown in there. He couldn’t tell what it was and quite frankly, he wasn’t all that sure he wanted to know.

“Okay, okay, I give. I get it. Just please hurry up.”

Satisfied with Hunk’s response, Lance went back to his skin care routine. And in his defense, he did try to hurry. But there was only so much you could rush. 

Honestly, Hunk was just thankful that they lived within walking distance of the school. No need to worry about who was going to give them a ride or how bad traffic was going to be. And no stress about making it to the bus on time when school did start.

~~~

“It’s very nice to meet you Keith. Shiro has so told me so much about you. I do admit, I was a bit surprised when he told me you were transferring here from Galra Academy when you’re so talented. I’m sure you have your reasons and I won’t ask for specifics. But you just have to tell me about the music program there sometime.”

Keith nodded, forcing a smile. He really didn’t ever want to talk about Galra. 

“Sure. Allura, right?”

She nodded, smiling brightly. 

“Yes, and just let me know if you need anything. I try my best to get to know everyone. I think it creating friendships helps us work together better.”

Honestly, Keith was finding it harder and harder to keep his smile in place. He’d heard this whole _work together as a family_ speech before. The rep at Galra might as well have been reading it off of a cue card. But Allura said it with so much heart, instead of like something she rehearsed every day. She said it like she actually believed it and Keith wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

“Right, thanks. Sorry, by the way, I know it must have sucked trying to fit me into the field show. But I’m sure I’ll be able to learn the sets quickly. The instructor at Galra worked us to the bone memorizing sets until we could do them in our sleep-” Keith stopped suddenly and his face flushed. “Oh. But that’s not to say that the band here doesn’t work hard. I’m sure you guys do it’s just that Galra has this crazy reputation to uphold- I mean, _shit_ , sorry, this is coming out wrong.”

Keith was a little more than surprised when Allura laughed. 

“Don’t worry about it. I get what you mean. Galra is an elite school. We work as hard as we can without the funds or resources that they have. But I’m glad we’ll finally have someone with a Galra work ethic around here. Speaking of-” Allura turned and scanned the room, frowning when she obviously didn’t find what she was looking for. “Pidge!”

A guy… girl…- Keith couldn’t really tell- who was sitting on the floor polishing their mellophone looked up. “What’s up?”

Keith frowned. The voice gave away nothing. He still couldn’t tell. And the nickname certainly wasn’t helping.

“Have you seen Lance and Hunk. They’re late.”

Pidge shrugged, not even bothering to look around. Keith didn’t hear what was said after that. He was just stuck on the name Lance. It couldn’t be the same Lance, could it?  _Idiot_ , he thought to himself, of course it was the same Lance. The nagging feeling that had been haunting him all summer suddenly hit him like a truck. And at the same time, his stomach twisted with realization.  _How had he forgotten?_

“If they’re not here in the next 30 seconds I’m going to-”

Allura’s threat was stopped in its tracks by the door flying open, revealing two winded teenagers.

“Lance! Hunk! You’re late. And on the last day of practice. What have I told you?”

Hunk frowned, apparently not content to sit back and be yelled at. “I swear it wasn’t my fault Allura. I stopped by Lance’s house to get him because I knew he hadn’t left yet but he was only halfway through moisturizing-“

“ _Exfoliating,_ Hunk.” Lance groaned, walking past all of them to his instrument locker.

“Right, whatever. Anyway, he was in the middle of _exfoliating_ and it’s only step two in a three step process or whatever. But actually, the real question is, why aren’t you all on the field yet?”

Keith actually had to work to keep his from gaping at the scene before him. Allura was the drum major and yet they were all talking to her like they were best friends, which they probably were. In fact, Keith just noticed how casual and friendly the atmosphere was in the room. This would never have stood at Galra. It had been all business there all the time. It was so strange here.

Allura opened her mouth to answer Hunk but Lance cut her off.

“Hey, Allura, who’s using the locker next to mine?”

At that very moment, Keith wanted nothing more than to not be standing here next to Allura. God, was he sweating? Why was he suddenly so nervous? After three years there should be no reason to feel nervous. He hadn’t even realized that he’d been lowering his head whenever Lance walked by or looked in his general direction.

“Oh,” Allura said, her previous anger dissipating for the moment. “I guess I’ll introduce you now. Lance, Hunk, this is our new band member. He just transferred from Galra-”

Keith sighed and turned to face Lance, figuring he’d have to face him sooner or later. And when he did, he found that Lance was squinting at him. Then his eyes widened.

“Wait a second, I’d know that mullet anywhere.”

Then he was striding forward and Keith almost backed away from him. He was taller than Keith remembered. A little bit taller than him now. It was unnerving. And- _wait, mullet?_

Keith had been expecting something like anger from Lance for suddenly showing up after making a big deal out of going to an elite music school. But instead, there was a smile plastered on his face as he threw an arm over Keith’s shoulders.

“Well, if it isn’t Keith Kogane. Mr. Galra Academy Bigshot. Trumpet player extraordinaire. What brings you to our quaint little high school?”

Keith felt his face flush at the meaning behind the words. He was already getting outrageously tired of all this embarrassment he was having to suffer through and it was only 7 in the morning.

Seemingly sensing his discomfort, Allura stepped in and pulled Lance away by his arm. “Alright Lance, don’t think this is getting you out of trouble. But right now we need to get on the field. Shiro and Coran have everything set up so let's get moving!” 

Lance sighed and removed his arm from Keith to get his trumpet from his locker. Hunk was retrieving his quad from the percussion room and everyone else was making their way towards the door. Meanwhile, Keith was still standing in the middle of the room with a dazed look on his face. Lance turned before walking out the door. 

“Well come on. Let’s see what you learned at your fancy Academy.”


	2. Band Camp

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys!  
> I'M ALIVE and finally back with the next chapter!  
> Before you start reading, I’m going to mention that I made some small adjustment to chapter 1 because the way I wrote it originally doesn’t work with what I have planned. Poor planning on my part.  
> Also, it wasn’t meant for this chapter to take eons to write. I kept getting distracted working on scenes for future chapters. (Scenes that I really really love now and I hope you guys love them too.)  
> I hope you guys are still interested in my marching band extravaganza after 4 months???  
> Anyway, enjoy the chapter and I will see you at the end!  
> {p.s.- thank you for beta reading @Scarlet_Witch147}

No matter how much his parents had been paying for him to go to a prestigious music school, Keith had never considered himself to be above anyone else in terms of how much he knew about music. At least… not until he got out onto the field for his very first practice with the Altea high school marching band. 

_What the hell kind of exercises were these anyway?_

“Raise your arm like me and imagine that you’re throwing a paper airplane. Breathe out when you throw it and just remember that the longer you blow air out, the farther the paper airplane will fly. Work on getting it to go farther and farther with each breath.”

Keith actually could not believe that this was a real breathing exercise. And from the looks of it, this wasn’t the first time this exercise had been carried out. Any lingering doubt that might have been present among the band members during the first few sessions of releasing a paper airplane were long gone as everyone went through the motions like robots. 

“Remember to breathe through your diaphragm. Hot air. That’s what you want. You might want to try counting as well to measure how long you’re holding a breath and check to see if you're making progress. And remember not to try to force air out at the end. If you’re forcing your breath, you won’t get any decent notes out.”

“Coran please, it’s time to do any with all these tired breathing exercises. Can’t you see you’re just sucking the life out of everyone?”

At the sound of Lance’s voice, a majority of the students turned their heads, the band director’s instructions momentarily forgotten as they stared with something that Keith could only describe as confusion etched into their features. They saw Lance every day, right? And from what Keith could remember, he’d always been one to make himself heard or seen. He’d always wanted nothing more than to be the center of attention. So having everyone look at him like this was puzzing, to say the least.

“Ah, Lance,” the instructor of the breathing exercise said, “Late again, are we?” Everyone else took this as their opportunity to stop pretending to throw paper airplanes across the football field.

“A queen is never late Coran. Everyone else is simply early.” Lance said, using his most regal voice and accentuating it with a low bow.

Keith frowned. _Queen? What on Earth?_

“Besides,” Lance continued, straightening back up. “Even if I was late, it’s only because I have my fabulous looks to maintain. Beauty like this doesn’t come without hard work.”

“Yes of course, your highness. But I assume that means you’re ready to practice now?” Coran responded with a bright smile that rivaled Lance’s. 

Lance shrugged in response, smile spread across his face. “Well, I guess since I’m here now we could get things started.”

Keith could only assume that this was the Band Director. Which only made the situation that much more confusing for him. How the hell was Lance just casually bantering with the _band director_.

“Alright then.” Coran replied and turned back to the band. 

“Attention!” He called and everyone responded immediately, straightening their posture, heals clicking together, falling silent. Keith found some solace in this. At least they respected the commands of the band director and knew how to follow them. He waited a moment before nodding. “At ease.” He said and everyone relaxed but remained silent.

“We’re going tostart with some line drills. Get your instruments and find your groups. Group number one will start on the end line. As soon as they hit the five yard line, the second group will go and so on. You’ll continue until you hit the other end line. Remember, start with your right foot, use your peripheral vision to stay in line with people next to you, and make sure you’re holding your instrument correctly. We’re not playing now, just focus on technique. Now fall out.”

With that, everyone abandoned the field to retrieve their instruments that were in cases scattered along the track. Keith figured this was a good a time as any to figure out where exactly he was supposed to fit in.

“Coran!” Allura called, jogging over to the band director after she’d retrieved her flute. “Before we start, this is Keith, the transfer from Galra.”

Coran turned, his bright smile now directly on Keith. This was certainly a change from the cold, monotone expressions of Galra’s band director. “Yes, yes, Keith! So glad that you’ve joined us. I hope you find being in our band an enjoyable experience,” he beamed and then looked around. “Now let’s see. Since you’re a trumpet play, I’ll put you in Lance’s group. He’s the one that was making his grand entrance just now. After the drills, we’ll go back to the band room to practice the music and you can meet everyone in your section and the band in general. Later when it’s cooler we’ll work on the sets and figure out where to fit you in. I think it should work out quite nicely actually. As it is, we have a few people that are barely able to make it to their positions on time.”

Keith nodded. “Right, I’ll do my best to get the sets memorized quickly.”

Coran stared at him for a moment before letting out a short laugh. “You’re a little late to the party, but with all you’re Galra training, I’m sure you’ll be fine. Don’t worry too much about getting it right the first time. Just make sure to have fun while still trying your best!” 

_Have fun…_ All the practicing Keith had received at Galra told him there was no time for fun during practice. Maybe that’s why Altea had been ranked so low the last few years. He found his way to Lance’s group, where he received a few looks, but no comment on his presence. 

~~~

It didn’t take long for Keith to realize that he had severely overestimated the capabilities of his band mates. They’d already been on the field for a little over an hour and they were _still_ doing line drills. This was the last day of band camp. The last day of a two week long training camp. And still they couldn’t manage to get six people to march in a straight line.

Keith couldn’t remember how many times they’d gone up and down the field trying to get it right. Someone was always off beat or taking too many steps in between yard markers.

A disaster of a training session like this at Galra would have cost the entire band five laps, five more if they caught you walking.

At this point they would be working on line drills the entire day. However, as the day progressed, Keith noticed that the overall performance of the band members seemed to be getting worse instead of better. As they marched back and forth across the field, everyone seemed to care less about getting it right and more about complaining about how hot it was. Keith couldn’t believe they even had the nerve to complain about it when they were barely even trying anymore. He couldn’t help but wonder what exactly they’d been doing for the past two weeks.

A whistle blew twice and then his group hit the next yard line, they stopped. Keith stumbled as he took a step past the line before falling back in. Maybe it would have been smart to ask if there were any cues he should watch out for…

“Alright everyone!” Coran called and the steady _tick-tock tick-tock_ of the metronome shut off. “We’re going to stop line drills for now and move inside to practice music! Five minute water break and then we’ll head in.”

Everyone shuffled off to their bags after that, seemingly with no regard the absolute atrocity of a practice session that just occurred. But Keith decided that for now, he would ignore it, lest the frustration eat him alive.

~~~

Line drills hadn’t gone well. No one seemed to know how to use their peripheral vision to their advantage. No one really even seemed to care about staying in line as they marched across the field.

But this… _this. This was absolutely ridiculous._ The band’s inability to keep time with each other seemed to extend to their musical abilities as well. The individual sections played well enough and Keith could tell they knew what they were doing. He attributed that to the hard work of their section leaders. But there was a discord between the melody and the beat that was impossible to ignore. 

Unfortunately, it was more than just the discord that was making Coran frown and Allura’s foot twitch in annoyance. It was the quiet voices talking or giggling whenever they weren’t playing, too absorbed in their own conversations to notice when they were supposed to be playing and ended up coming in late.

_Why wasn’t anyone taking this seriously?_

Allura beat Keith to the punch before he could explode and effectively ruin any good impressions he’d left with his fellow band members.

“Enough with the useless chatter!” Allura blurted, standing abruptly and the room fell silent. Coran froze with his hand in the air, mid beat. “If you all don’t start taking this seriously then we will all be doing pushups!” No one would meet Allura’s gaze and she huffed, sitting back down. “Sorry Coran.” She said, voice more calm now but he didn’t seem to mind the outburst.

For the first time since Keith had shown up that morning, he realized that the band members were in fact capable of looking ashamed of their actions. Keith found new comfort and solace in the fact that there was at least some structure or hierarchy in this band.

Coran looked around for a moment and then let out a breath. “Alrighty then, let’s start again from the fifth measure, shall we?

~~~

“Listen up everyone!” Allura called once all the chairs were stacked away in the corner after music practice was finished. The room quieted immediately and everyone stopped where they were to turn and look at their Drum Major. 

It was easy for anyone to how much respect Allura had with all the band members. “Okay, before we head outside, we’re going to practice some commands. If you can remember where you were standing before, then just find an empty spot. Standing in formation now isn’t as important as getting the commands right.” 

Once everyone found a place to stand, Allura blew her whistle once. It was short, obviously meant to avoid having the piercing sound echo excessively around the room. “Attention!” She called and the effect from earlier repeated as everyone straightened and brought their feet together, waiting for the next command. 

The band ran through each command as a reminder first- _Right Face. Left Face. About Face. Horns Up. Horns Down. Parade Rest. Attention._

They started off slow, the picking up speed until Allura was calling out another command before the first was even finished, forcing everyone to focus 100% or risk tripping over their own feet and getting lost completely. Keith was suddenly very glad for the mandatory command drills that all the Galra first years had to complete successfully before they were even allowed to march with the band.

The commands continued until quite a large portion of the band had dropped out altogether, unable to keep up and now lingering around the edges of the room. Only when about half the band was still participating did Allura stop the commands with a final “ _Parade Rest!”_

She looked around at the remaining members and smiled. “Those of you still left, good job. Those of you who are not, I do hope you all tried your best. It is important that you learn the commands well. But it’s completely optional to learn them to the “competition” extent. In the end, it won’t affect our competition score. That lies completely with how we perform on the field. The speed competition is something designed to challenge yourself and just have fun with. And now that that’s done, everyone get in block formation outside so we can head to the field!”

~~~

For all the grief and frustration Keith had to endure this first day of marching band, he found that they actually worked quite smoothly together on the field, except for the occasional miscommunication on steps. 

And the mellophone player from earlier-Pidge, Keith remembered-who had placed their hands on their hips definitely in between sets because “I am _sorry_ Coran, but it is literally _impossible_ for me to make it from right here to _over there_ in just _five beats._ My legs are not long enough for this”. Keith almost burst out laughing at how ridiculous the scene was. 

They ran through different section of the field show until it was dark and they had only the field lights to illuminate them. Keith found that field show practice was where he had the most fun all day. It had been relatively easy to fit Keith in within the trumpet section. And it actually made it a bit easier for the people around him to get to their spots on time, Pidge especially.

He hardly even noticed the time passing before Allura was blowing her whistle again-two times- to signal that everyone should stop. “Gather ‘round everyone!”

She didn’t speak again until everyone was within earshot and she didn’t have to yell across the field.

“Good job today everyone. Make sure that you rest up tomorrow and remember, bright and early Monday morning. 6:45am. Don’t be late.” Allura said and then focused her eyes solely on the trumpet section. “That means you in particular Lance.”

Lance slapped his hand to his chest in mock offense. “I would _never_.”

Allura actually granted him a smile at this, seemingly knowing that Lance wasn’t just goofing off and that he actually would be on time Monday. 

“Alright then, see you all on Monday.”

~~~

Exhaustion didn’t hit Keith until that night when he laid down in his bed. He sighed and closed his eyes, letting the frustrations of the day ease out of his shoulders. On Monday school would be begin. Then at least he’d have something else to focus on besides the mess of a band he’d thrown himself into.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again and thank you for reading!  
> The part where Allura mentions the “Commands Competition” is true. It’s something that they used to do for fun at the competitions my band went to where each band would choose their best people to send out and try to outlast the others as the person giving the commands got faster and faster. I think the winner got a gift card or something?? I honestly cannot remember what the official name for it was.  
> Question time, because I’m really curious and I was thinking about this while listening to music: what song do you imagine that Lance would serenade Keith with? And would he sing or play Trumpet? {OoooOooOOooR, do you think Keith would serenade Lance???}  
> I’d love to know what you guys think!  
> See you guys next chapter!  
> {p.s. @guardianofdragonlore - I have decided to put Matt on Euphonium, and he will have a part in later chapters! I’ll let you know when we can discuss the details about your firstborn, lol.  
> p.s.s. - That breathing exercise with the “paper airplanes” is completely 100% from personal experience. It’s something my band’s assistant drum major made us do.}


End file.
